1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a synchronous controller of a rotary press having a printing unit and other necessary units, wherein the rotary press for printing newspapers has, as a printing unit, a plurality of multicolor printing units each combining at least two printing divisions individually having two printing couples capable of printing four pages of a newspaper arranged in an axial direction, for instance, provided to be able to contact each blanket cylinder and also provided to be individually driven so as to select a drive control subject based on print image information of each printing couple.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A rotary press for individually driving printing mechanisms constituting a printing division such as a printing couple comprising a plate cylinder and blanket cylinders and a pull-in apparatus is set forth in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-85196 for instance. This bulletin describes a technology wherein a drive motor provided to individually drive the printing mechanisms and pull-in apparatus rotates with its angle of rotation controlled by a computerized motor controller, capable of mutually adjusting well and driving the individual printing mechanisms and pull-in apparatus according to proceeding of printing. In addition, this bulletin mentions that an aggregate of printing mechanisms including the pull-in apparatus can be variably combined.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-64882 shows the rotary press comprising units that are the printing mechanisms rendered mechanically independent so as to individually drive, and describes a technology wherein synchronized phase control is performed to the drive motor of this rotary press unit by control means. In addition, it mentions that automatic coupling among the units is simple.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-47905 shows the rotary press having a plurality of cylinders individually driven by an electric motor and one folding apparatus individually driven, and describes a technology of simple configuration and superior in flexibility wherein a master system for operating this rotary press comprises one higher-level master system and a group of autonomous print stations separated into a plurality and assigned to the folding apparatus. It also describes a technology for allowing the group of the print stations to be assigned to the folding apparatus in any desirable manner.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-114058 shows a synchronous controller for synchronously controlling a plurality of motors so as to keep differences in mutual phases of mechanical axes of a plurality of machines rotated and driven by the plurality of motors in a fixed relationship.
On the other hand, a multicolor printing unit of which BB printing divisions are stacked in a direction of height has an in-feed roller upstream of a first printing division and an out-feed roller downstream of a last printing division provided respectively in order to stably run the continuous paper running against gravity, so that these rollers are rotated and driven in an appropriate relationship with rotation of the printing couples of the printing unit so as to adjust traveling tension of the continuous paper.
However, the above described Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-85196 does not disclose the technology for variably combining an aggregate of printing mechanisms including the pull-in apparatus. In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-64882 does not disclose the technology for performing automatic coupling among the units, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-47905 does not disclose the technology for assigning the print stations to the folding apparatus. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-114058 does not disclose the technology for specifying or selecting a subject to be controlled by the synchronous controller shown therein.
Meanwhile, for example in the case of newspaper printing, there is increasing use of the rotary press wherein all the printing units are multicolor printing units, that is, the so-called BB printing divisions stacked by at least two pieces and normally by four pieces in the direction of height so that a multicolor printed type page can be placed on any page and complicated form feed is not required whichever page the multicolor printed type page is placed.
However, a newspaper of which all pages are the multicolor printed type pages is seldom published for various reasons. Accordingly, there may be a printing division not required to operate when actually printing the newspaper, and so it has been requested with increasing eagerness that printing should be performed while stopping the printing division not required to operate, that is, the printing division that may be stopped, from the viewpoints of energy saving, reduction of running costs and also improved work safety.
However, in the case where a worker specifies the printing division to be stopped each time, it often happens that specification of the printing division to be specified is forgotten so that there arises inconvenience to implementation of the desired energy saving, reduction of running costs and also improved work safety, and there were cases where it caused a slowdown of the work, though very rarely, by specifying a printing division not to be specified and consequently producing faulty printed matter and causing trouble in the printing process.
For that reason, a rational apparatus capable of securely specifying the printing division without error has been desired.
On the other hand, there are the cases, in newspaper printing, where less than six pages are printed by a printing machine capable of printing total eight pages on both sides by arranging machine plates equivalent to four newspaper pages in an axial direction. In this case, as the continuous paper of a width fit for the number of pages to be printed is used for printing, it is necessary to change a tension range of the traveling direction worked on the continuous paper by the in-feed roller and out-feed roller in order for the continuous paper to travel in a stable state in the printing unit, and the rational apparatus capable of securely making the change without error has been desired.
An object of the present invention is to provide a synchronous controller of a rotary press for selecting a control subject based on print image information by automatically selecting a printing division not required to operate, that is, the printing division that may be stopped and excluding it from subjects of synchronous operation control, and thus capable of energy saving and reduction of running costs.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a synchronous controller of a rotary press for selecting a control subject based on print image information by recognizing a width dimension of the continuous paper required by each multicolor printing unit based on the print image information, and capable of automatically setting a reference tension on traveling of the continuous paper in advance of printing operation based on the recognition, having the continuous paper travel stably from a start of printing operation according to the reference tension, and preventing malfunctions such as a paper drift wherein the continuous paper moves from side to side while traveling due to an unstable tension, occurrence of wrinkles in the traveling direction and paper out.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a synchronous controller of a rotary press for selecting a control subject based on print image information, capable of, even if a master control division suffers a breakdown, synchronously controlling the rotary press with another master control division.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a loop-like network line capable of bypassing a part of the network line suffering a breakdown, if any.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a master control division for setting a driving reference phase and a driving reference speed, processing information inputted from an input operation division and a print image allocation setting division to operate other components, generating an separation signal for separating two blanket cylinders excluded from the operation control subjects, and thus capable of energy saving and reduction of running costs.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a master control division for setting a driving reference phase and a driving reference speed, processing information inputted from an input operation division and a print image allocation setting division to operate other components, generating an separation signal for separating two blanket cylinders excluded from the operation control subjects, selecting a paper width of the continuous paper to be printed by each multicolor printing unit to be controlled, having the continuous paper travel stably according to the reference tension, and capable of preventing malfunctions such as a paper drift wherein the continuous paper moves from side to side while traveling due to an unstable tension, occurrence of wrinkles in the traveling direction and paper out.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a print image allocation setting division wherein, from inputted information, information on allocation of pages to be printed respectively and allocation of print images to be printed on each printing couple of a specified multicolor printing unit is set in respective axial areas of the right and left printing cylinders of each specified multicolor printing unit.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a print image allocation setting division wherein print image allocation patterns are prepared in advance and allocation information of print images to be printed on each printing couple of a specified multicolor printing unit is set.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a processing division for generating a separation signal for separating two blanket cylinders forming a printing division from the sum of xe2x80x9cnumbersxe2x80x9d of values based on whether or not there is an image to be printed from the print image allocation information.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide to each multicolor printing unit, from the print image allocation information, a processing division for recognizing an unnecessary area of the continuous paper based on whether or not there is an image to be printed in each predetermined corresponding area of the right and left printing cylinders, and also selecting a paper width of the continuous paper required as the continuous paper of the multicolor printing unit.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a message and configuration thereof for specifying a management range of rotary press set formation for printing operation based on the allocation information from the print image allocation setting division.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a controlling message and configuration thereof related to width information of the continuous paper to be printed by each multicolor printing unit selected by the processing division, a driving reference value set by a driving reference setting division and so on.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an out-feed control division and an in-feed control division for having the continuous paper travel stably according to the reference tension based on information from the master control division, and capable of preventing malfunctions such as a paper drift wherein the continuous paper moves from side to side while traveling due to an unstable tension, occurrence of wrinkles in the traveling direction and paper out.
In the disclosed embodiment, the rotary press having a plurality of multicolor printing units combining at least two of so-called BB printing divisions wherein a blanket cylinder of a printing couple combining a plate cylinder and the blanket cylinder in a contactable manner is placed in a contactable manner with a blanket cylinder of another printing couple for printing a print image on the plate cylinder onto continuous paper passing between the two blanket cylinders via the blanket cylinders, for using and printing on, in each of these multicolor printing units, the continuous paper of a width dimension selected from the predetermined continuous paper of several width dimensions according to a print image area of the multicolor printing unit, said rotary press having: a print image allocation setting division for allocating to each printing couple a print image to be printed by the printing couple; driving means placed on each printing couple for individually driving the printing couples; an in-feed roller corresponding to each multicolor printing unit and rotated and driven by individual driving means to feed the multicolor printing unit with the continuous paper; a dancer roller corresponding to each multicolor printing unit and displaced according to traveling tension of the continuous paper fed into the multicolor printing unit and a force set to go against the traveling tension; an out-feed rollers corresponding to each multicolor printing unit and rotated and driven by individual driving means to draw out the continuous paper from the multicolor printing unit; a tension detection roller corresponding to each multicolor printing unit and detecting the traveling tension of the continuous paper drawn out of the multicolor printing unit; a slave control division provided to each driving means for controlling rotation of the driving means; an in-feed control division for controlling the rotation and driving of the in-feed roller according to the displacement of the dancer roller; an out-feed control division for controlling the rotation and driving of the out-feed roller according to the traveling tension of the continuous paper detected by the tension detection roller; one or more master control divisions provided by connecting with each slave control division, each in-feed control division each out-feed control division and the print image allocation setting division; and contact and separation means for, on receiving a separation signal from the master control division, separating the two blanket cylinders of the printing couple; and wherein the master control division is configured so that it specifies the slave control division, in-feed control division and out-feed control division to be managed based on allocation information of the print image allocation setting division, sends a control reference signal to the specified slave control division, sends to the specified in-feed control division a signal for setting the force to go against the traveling tension of the dancer roller corresponding to the continuous paper of a width dimension selected according to the print image area based on allocation information of the print image allocation setting division, and sends to the specified out-feed control division a signal for setting the detection tension of the tension detection roller for controlling rotation and driving of the out-feed roller corresponding to the continuous paper of a width dimension selected according to the print image area based on allocation information of the print image allocation setting division.